When transporting an article, in order to effectively protect the article from impacts and vibrations that may be applied thereto during transportation, normally, a cushioning material having shock-absorbing characteristics such as paper, a plastic sheet, or the like is used to pack the article, and further, filling is filled in an outer box so as to prevent the article from moving as appropriate and the article is packed in the outer box.
For example, when a comparatively large-sized article such as a desktop personal computer is transported, there is a case where the article is delivered from a factory to a distributor or a mass retailer as a destination of shipment and a case where the article is delivered to a home of a purchaser who purchased the article from a mass retailer. Recently, in home-delivery services, requests for delivery of products such as desktop personal computers, notebook computers, and digital cameras to manufacturers and repair centers of mass retailers have rapidly increased. These products are normally packed in exclusive packing boxes when consumers purchase the products from mass retailers and retail stores, and if the boxes are not disposed of but are left as they are, they can be reused at the time of request for repair, however, in actuality, such boxes are disposed of immediately after the purchase of the products, so that in the case of request for repair, an available box is used.
Of course, home delivery service companies prepare boxes of various sizes to meet customer requests, however, the sizes and shapes of products are diverse, and it is difficult to satisfactorily pack all products in boxes that home delivery service companies prepare.
A product packing state differs between the time of sale of the product and the time of request for repair of the product. Specifically, at the time of sale of a product that will be requested to be delivered to a manufacturer or repair center of a retail store, individual packing is necessary, that is, it is necessary to pack articles individually and, for increasing the commodity value of the article, apply an appropriate material and container for protecting the articles, however, when a person requests a home delivery service person to transport a product to be repaired, “individual packing” as in the case of product sale is not necessary, but the product must be effectively protected from impacts and external forces that may be applied thereto during transportation.
Therefore, when delivering an article to a manufacturer or a repair center of a mass retailer, it is convenient that the article is put in an available empty box or bag and directly transported. However, a simple cardboard box, paper bag or vinyl bag cannot secure safety against impacts etc. When using a bag, a special measure for protecting a product from impacts is necessary. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a package including a bag-shaped article storing portion for storing articles and a bag-shaped cushioning portion which is connected to at least a portion of the periphery of the article storing portion and reduces impacts applied from the outside to the article storing portion by cushioning materials sealed inside.
Patent Document 2 describes a bag using a heat-insulating effect of foamed granular bodies as a temperature-keeping bag to be used as a shopping bag although it is not a bag for article transportation. This temperature-keeping bag is a double bag, having an inner bag portion and an outer bag portion which form a granular body storing portion therebetween and are freely deformable, and includes a bag main body that is formed so as to store an object to be kept in temperature, and is non-breathable on at least the side of the outer bag portion of the bag portions, numerous foamed granular bodies which are stored in the granular body storing portion and gather together in a close-contact state and turn into a solidified state as the granular body storing portion is deaerated, and an air intake and exhaust port that is provided in the bag main body and communicatively connected to the granular body storing portion, and includes an air intake valve for keeping the deaerated state of the granular body storing portion.
The effect of the temperature-keeping bag described in Patent Document 2 is emphasized in which, by solidifying numerous foamed granular bodies stored in the granular body storing portion along the shape of the object to be kept in temperature, heat loss due to circulation of air around the object to be kept in temperature inside the bag main body is eliminated, and the foamed granular body group can insulate heat, so that changes in temperature of the object to be kept in temperature can be reduced for a long period of time, and by positioning the object to be kept in temperature by the solidified foamed granular bodies so as to prevent this from moving inside the bag main body, the object to be kept in temperature can be prevented from being deteriorated in quality due to movement of the object to be kept in temperature.
The temperature-keeping bag described in Patent Document 2 uses the heat-insulating effect of the foamed granular body group for temperature keeping of the object to be kept in temperature by solidifying the foamed granular body group along the shape of the object to be kept in temperature, and it can be expected that positioning of the object to be kept in temperature by the solidified foamed granular bodies so as to prevent the object to be kept in temperature from moving inside the bag main body will provide not only a heat-insulating effect but also a cushioning effect by the solidified foamed granular body group, and it can also be expected that stable holding of the article at a fixed position will provide a great effect in packing of the article to be transported by home delivery service.